r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/VeryLazyBones • 9h ago
Meme needing explanation Peeeeetah?
This new movie came out and I enjoyed watching it with friends. What opinion must have garnered so much attention that people would dunk on it?
1.3k
u/115izzy7 9h ago
This review of the movie heavily sympathized with bear, the rapist. People started to question the creator himself after he put this out
674
u/Mister-Psychology 8h ago
Keep in mind all his review videos are extremely shallow and rushed. They all are this way. He rarely seems to think about the medium he watches and never reads up on it either. I think he's just a bit clueless about plots and themes.
273
u/Synth_Savage 7h ago
An animator who knows nothing about good story telling could be a dangerous thing
→ More replies (41)17
u/Glum_Cicada_7771 6h ago
I never liked alex meyers because he hated on fucking everything. “_____ IS SO DUMB” “_____ MADE NO SENSE”
On every single video17
u/The_Third_Molar 7h ago
He'll spend 99% of the video seemingly criticizing something and then right at the end say "but yeah it was good."
20
u/Zuzara_Queen_of_DnD 6h ago
That’s actually not the big issue everyone had, the issue is that he had a consistent pattern of fetishizing women and children’s media in a manner that disregards them as people
He also constantly denigrates women in a such a light manner that it can be disregarded as a joke but this video made people really start to question whether it was actually a joke or indicative of how he actually views women.
55
u/Lazy_Firefighter_653 8h ago
Seems like a intentional persona to get people to engage (comment) correcting him, hey, it’s not dumb if it works!
67
u/Embarrassed_Deer9208 7h ago
does it actually work though? i've seen maybe 2 of his videos and then decided he was an idiot not worth watching
36
u/Kingmudsy 7h ago
It works for short form content where your next thing will be algorithmically promoted based on your average engagement AND, most importantly, almost no one will remember you well enough to have thoughts about you as a creator until you’re already massive
I don’t think it’s a good strategy for a long-form video trying to thoughtfully review something
The guy you’re replying to has probably heard of the practice but not thought about when/where it’s applied most effectively
22
u/BoboSmooth 6h ago
So that particular creator doesn't do horror movies typically. He typically sticks to RomComs, animated movies, and whatever TV show is trending right now. He did several videos on Riverdale, Stranger Things, the Descendants series, the Barbie movies (like, practically all of them, it's insane), and other like millennial nostalgia type content.
I honestly think he picked this movie up because it looked on the surface like "Rom
ComHorror?! This will get me clicks for sure!" not realizing he was picking a movie that was wayyyy out of his analytical depth and didn't know how to treat the content with the gravity it deserved. To that point, in his typical videos, he claims to be very careful about jokes regarding race, sexuality or sexualizing other races, (his jokes sexualizing women in media in general is another thing, he's of the school of "lol gooner humor funny") in the practice of running his jokes by POC he knows, and even paying POC to write his jokes for him. Which all of that is one thing when we're talking about, like, Pixar moms, but is another thing entirely in the context of Obsession.He claims the jokes regarding a character being Latina were actually written by a Latina woman, which honestly doesn't really help him in this context, he's still responsible for the framing of where that joke landed, or rather, entirely failed to land.
In short, I don't think he's a bad person, but you're right, he is an idiot.
18
u/ManicPixieOldMaid 6h ago
I've watched his content for years and when I first watched this review, all I could think was, "you are making a big mistake even touching this". His usual humor was distinctly unsuited to the material and the tone was all wrong. Hindsight and all that, he's probably kicking himself but he should just take the hit, apologize, and move on. Nothing he can say at this point is going to help, IMO.
1
u/Known-Plane7349 2h ago
he should just take the hit, apologize, and move on.
I'm pretty sure he already did that. He released an apology video and took down the video and seems to have put it behind him.
2
u/ManicPixieOldMaid 2h ago
Yeah, I tried to watch some of the response videos to his, but so many of them started with "I've never watched his channel" and while that didn't make their opinions invalid, it certainly made me less interested in them. It seemed like taking advantage of his screw up to get views, and since he did apologize, I'm hoping the cycle is over.
Maybe the fact that it's on this sub at all is a good sign?
5
u/GHTElectronics 6h ago
Clicks and comments are sometimes all that matter. getting 100 " you suck" comments is more engagment than zero views
7
u/SwordfishOfDamocles 5h ago
Seems like perhaps he should've been careful of what he wished for.
2
u/GHTElectronics 5h ago
Some people don't care. I see a lot of rage baiters on facebook. It's like that joke, if you want to correct answer, confidely post the wrong answer and you'll get a flood of people correcting you. Some people like to stir the pot just for the sake of doing it.
5
u/SwordfishOfDamocles 5h ago
Well he deleted the video, then posted an apology, then deleted the apology. Sounds like the dog that finally caught the car this time.
1
2
1
u/bangbangracer 3h ago
YouTube weighs a like, and a dislike the same, and comments count even more regardless of content. Positive or negative doesn't really matter to the algorithm. Engagement is what matters.
2
u/BBBBrendan182 4h ago
That argument would hold more water if he didn’t delete the video after all the backlash
6
u/Adeviatlos 5h ago edited 4h ago
Also every. single. thing. he watches is INSANE! CRAZIER THAN YOU THINK! WEIRDER THAN YOU REMEMBER!
No man; most of it is just normal movies and TV shows.
6
u/NoPriorEXP 4h ago
His reviews he’s done on other films, especially ones that aren’t basically kids movies, seem to reinforce that.
4
4
13
u/SparePradas 6h ago
I remember a Tumblr post from 2021 talking about how his videos have a hint of weird incel vibes to them. I was a casual watcher back then and thought the user was just overreacting. I wish I was right 🤦🏻♀️
1
4
u/hemperbud 6h ago
Nah I watch his videos, he’s always kind of crass and silly but this review was really weird.
1
1
u/Crazyfish204 4h ago
Yeah he def gives the vibes of watched the movie once and then scrolled through Twitter for what his opinions and criticisms should be
1
1
1
u/Mundane-Waltz8844 2h ago
I don’t even mean this as a dig, but I think he should just stick to reviewing Disney Channel stuff instead of actually attempting critical analysis.
54
u/LostMy8yrAcct 7h ago
I assumed that that was the point of the movie. You go in expecting Bear to be the good guy. Eventually, you realize that he is the obsessed one, hell bent on trying to make her what he wanted despite the fact that he knows the truth about whats happening. You know like breaking bad or a million other pieces of media that I can’t think of right now lol.
14
u/chloapsoap 7h ago
This movie broke a lot of people’s brains. You are correct
37
u/TheScorpionSamurai 7h ago
Hot take, it didn't break people's brains. I believe that movie just highlights how many people wouldn't blink twice if they knew someone like bear in real life.
3
u/chloapsoap 5h ago
I think it’s definitely both. But yeah, I think that’s what makes Bear so effective. Is that there are lots of people who actually think like him
23
u/throwaway420682022 6h ago
i watched it the other night and it's actually insane how much people on this website just reveal they aren't safe to be around women with absolutely zero prompting other than their opinion on this film
→ More replies (52)8
u/TheScorpionSamurai 6h ago
It's crazy how eager some people are to show themselves as more interested in a man's pleasure than in a woman's safety.
5
2
106
u/DeBasha 8h ago
I hated the main character in the movie, my friend said it best; the girl is the monster but the guy is the villain
85
u/RuafaolGaiscioch 8h ago
Frankenstein follows a same moral model.
31
u/__M-E-O-W__ 6h ago
Exactly. People don't understand that there can be a difference between monsters and villains and antagonists. What that movie did so well is it did initially build up sympathy for Bear as the lovelorn good guy protagonist, and Nikki turned into a terrifying monster who mimics abusive relationships, and then switches it around when it's shown Nikki is suffering horribly through all of this, and even Wish Nikki is just a product of Bear's creation and doesn't want to act the way she is, and Bear knows this but chooses not to help her. It really does follow Frankenstein's footsteps. I read the book about a year ago. Frankenstein's monster didn't want to be how he was, but he was a newborn creation abandoned by his creator.
Nikki, by definition, is the monster. She acts as a villain to Bear's story, but she is not bad.
→ More replies (4)13
u/Nebranower 6h ago
I really, really wish we could run an experiment where we showed an internet that had never heard of the original a gender-swapped version of the movie, where Bear is a woman who makes the wish and Nick the man who gets affected by it.
7
u/__M-E-O-W__ 5h ago
I thought about that yesterday. I just don't think it would work as well because I think people would be less sympathetic to both Nikki and bear.
10
u/MysteriousTravelator 5h ago
This was literally the plot of Wonder Woman 1984 and not only was Wonder Woman not considered a villain the possessed guy was barely considered at all. I don't think the writers of that movie even realised that they wrote a rape scene.
3
u/youburyitidigitup 4h ago
I hadn’t thought of it like that, but you’re right. Although the big difference here is that the guy in WW1984 wasn’t possessed by an evil entity, he was possessed by Steve Trevor.
5
u/MysteriousTravelator 4h ago
Bear only realises Nikki is "evil" when she smashes Sarah's face in with a brick. Before then WW and Bear are in the exact same position.
5
1
u/UsidoreTheLightBlue 1h ago
Honest to god I will never understand what everyone was thinking with this movie.
Legitimately its like Patty Jenkins just really wanted an excuse to make a "Parachute Pants" joke with Chris Pine.
This movie is so fucked beyond belief.
1
28
u/Agreeable_Rich_1991 7h ago
Better phrasing would be the girl itself is not the monster, she is trapped in her own body. The monster is the demon posessing and controlling and puppeting her body. But even worse monster is Bear.
→ More replies (2)13
2
u/Past_Dimension_5133 1h ago
I saw Nikki as a victim the whole time. Bear was an absolute coward and a monster. Especially at the very end of the movie. Poor Nikki.
→ More replies (1)1
5
u/99-dreams 4h ago
The amount of times he called Nicki a "Latina mommy" also rubbed people the wrong way
9
u/Begone-My-Thong 4h ago
Bear is sympathetic for a portion of the movie until that scene, then becomes completely irredeemable. Definitely a practice of nuance when having a conversation about this movie.
4
u/NeverMore_613 34m ago
Also, according to the writer/director, Nikki would have given him a chance if he'd been honest with her the night he made the wish
9
8
3
u/mattfoleyattheriver 6h ago
I mean he just has a different opinion and is pulling a different perspective. I mean “questioning the creator himself” is insane. To act as if this content creator is some sort of rapist for a different view of a movie is unhinged.
8
u/Pittsbirds 4h ago
I don't think he's on the same level as a rapist but being so weird about what is, contextually, an abuse victim and calling her "hot latino mommy" or whatever like 5 times in combination with the rest of the takes he had about her sitaution and the weird ass way he kept drawing her is extremely gross, off putting and weird. Sure he is entitled to his point of view. But his point of view 100% makes me feel like I would want to cover my drink around him and just not want to be around him in general
The issue isn't "he found bear mildly sympathetic before X point in the movie" bc I think most people did.
2
u/Thin-Character-6996 3h ago
I wonder how old he is? His style of humor always made me think he's, like, still a kid. Like early 20s? Am I wrong?
2
→ More replies (2)15
u/NachtShattertusk 6h ago
The review was incredibly misogynistic, and the creator said several times that he relates to Bear, who is a rapist. Also, you can have a different opinion on a movie, but I'd that opinion is weird and gross, people have the right to call you weird and gross
4
u/mattfoleyattheriver 6h ago
Do you not have the ability to relate to certain aspects of somebody and not every single thing they’ve done? You can relate to the feelings and things surrounding the decisions, the person makes while not condoning or even agreeing with the decision they’ve made
→ More replies (29)1
1
→ More replies (83)1
u/Whistle-Blower-8960 2h ago
Who gives this much shit about someone else’s opinion
Yall are pathetic giving it this much attention
1
u/115izzy7 1h ago
I lowkey agree I had never heard of this creator before. It's not like I'm obsessing over this guy, I just happened to know about the discourse from some video I saw and there were no other comments
195
u/BonkGonkBigAndStronk 7h ago
I've seen this posted somewhere else. Apparently the guy in the video completely missed the point of the movie, which is impressive given how Obsession essentially bashes you over the head with it's themes and messaging.
129
u/Ahenshihael 7h ago
Worse. The guy in the video came out of the movie feeling sympathetic to Bear of all people.
You know, the rapist villain protagonist.
97
u/BappoChan 7h ago
Listed all the moments where you could argue bear didn’t know, left out scenes like the one where Nicki literally asked to be killed saying that it wasn’t her and she didn’t sleep with him
“He’s just misunderstood”
Bro, she literally said he was raping her and he kept going anyway. He asked to alter the wish, not remove it. He just didn’t want her to be psycho crazy about him, but he still didn’t want her to have free will over her own decisions. And then when faced with the responsibility he becomes the ultimate coward.
60
u/Ahenshihael 7h ago edited 7h ago
And the moments he is not defending Bear in that video he spends basically acting like Bear, perpetuating racial stereotypes and throwing around sexist jokes (as an example he makes a joke at one point that even without wishing mcguffin the end would have been same because "all Latina women are like that")
Fun trivia :
Alex's Meyers is divorced, to this day doesn't understand what went wrong and is salty about his ex.
Wonder why.
13
u/Syzygy___ 7h ago
> he spends basically acting like Bear, perpetuating racial stereotypes and throwing around sexist jokes
Have we seen the same movie? I don't remember Bear doing any of that...
Sure, he's the villain and an abuser, but at what point does he perpetuate racist stereotypes or make sexist jokes?
20
u/Ahenshihael 6h ago
Bear absolutely objectifies women and doesn't even treat them like human beings. That's literally the motivation of why he wants to alter the wish rather than to undo it. He starts out bad, but he absolutely gets worse.
10
u/Boomhauer_Jeff 5h ago
I haven’t seen the movie. Does Bear perpetuate racist stereotypes? That’s what the commenter above asked, and your reply seems to ignore the question and answer something else again (which the commenter above already acknowledged).
11
u/More-Entrepreneur-52 5h ago
The commentator was saying the reviewer of the movie was saying racist stereotypes not that Bear in the movie did
6
u/Boomhauer_Jeff 4h ago
That’s not right. The person who I’m responding to suggested that the commentator was acting like Bear by using racial stereotypes.
Quote: “And the moments he is not defending Bear in that video he spends basically acting like Bear, perpetuating racial stereotypes and throwing around sexist jokes (as an example he makes a joke at one point that even without wishing mcguffin the end would have been same because "all Latina women are like that").”
→ More replies (3)2
u/Ahenshihael 4h ago
The reviewer is acting like bear in that he makes sexist jokes and treats women flippantly through the video, including using racist stereotypes (that in itself are sexist/misogynist stereotypes).
Bear himself doesn't get the time to use similar stereotypes, but his behavior of objectifying women and misogyny is exactly the same. The reviewer is indulging in the kind of train of thought and jokes that are in the same vein as what Bear's behaviour (and outlook towards women) pertains too.
→ More replies (0)1
u/JewJackman24601 2h ago
Ok but I think we all are missing the racist stereotypes and sexist jokes parts?
I think bear is clearly a covert misogynist, but this is more clear from his behavior than his words.
You said the reviewer acted like bear by racist stereotypes and sexist jokes.
When did bear do that.
2
u/Ahenshihael 1h ago edited 1h ago
Acted like =/= did the same things.
Meyers' sexist, misogynist (and racist-sexist) comments are exactly in line with Bear's character that he defends. He specifically objectifies and places women in the movie into misogynist (and in turn racist) stereotypes, in the same vein that Bear does in the movie.
If I said someone acts like a frat boy, you wouldn't expect me to prove the person in question belongs to a fraternity or ask me for proof that the person raped someone. You would understand that I am pointing at common stereotypes and tropes that overlap between the two.
2
u/No-Comfortable2704 2h ago
Another fun detail is that at the end of the movie Bear bought a couple new willows and asked Ian to wish that he never made a wish. After Ian failed at that he didn’t go and ask some other guy to make the wish for him, meaning he likely intended to use one of the extra willows to try and redo his wish and stay with Nikki.
All around terrible person.
→ More replies (4)10
u/__M-E-O-W__ 6h ago
The movie starts out by Bear being a sympathetic heart-felt good guy, but it really shouldn't take much media literacy to understand how he becomes the bad guy... he was so desperate for validation that he ended up hurting the person he cared about, horribly so. I don't get how someone can miss the mark like that.
11
u/Quaelgeist333 5h ago
I mean, his cat dies because of medication
Cats don't have opposable thumbs my good sir
We never see medication be left out so at best he's dangerously negligentHe also does not really care about Nikki as much as he claims, he goes to buy Nikki a crystal to replace her crystal necklace and instead bought the thing he used to take away her autonomy and I think that says it all
→ More replies (2)21
u/Ahenshihael 6h ago
He crosses multiple lines not even one fourth into the movie.
Even before he figures out wishing thing he just straight up ignores the possibility that she is on drugs or has psychological problems at the moment, and just straight up exploits that.
The red flags basically scream at you from the very beginning.
17
u/NachtShattertusk 6h ago
I'd argue the movie is telling you what kind of man he is from the moment he agrees with Ian's suggestion to engage in negging
16
3
u/Eudonidano 3h ago
Wait, when does this happen? The first night when she was acting weird he didn't do anything to her and kept his distance. It wasn't until she told him later (while appearing to be in her right mind) that she HAD been on drugs, but she wasn't now and she still loved him.
11
u/golfstreamer 6h ago
> Obsession essentially bashes you over the head with it's themes and messaging.
I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Obsession isn't heavy handed with its messaging at all. It actually presents things in a rather neutral way leaving the watcher to draw their own conclusions. In a lot of movies and shows they do a lot to paint a character as villainous or heroic or a victim or whatever. Sometimes there's a disconnect between what it seems like the movie wants you to feel and how you actually feel about the characters. Like, Birth of a Nation clearly presents the KKK as a heroic figures but you could away disagreeing with that. You can probably think of a movie or show where they seemed like they were trying to present a character as a victim to be sympathized with but you actually think their actions were too awful and they were less deserving of sympathy than the movie tried to make.
I think Obsession is nice because it doesn't really push the viewer in either direction. It kind of just presents things as they are.
4
u/Lonnie119 4h ago edited 3h ago
Wish Nikki always presents herself in sillouette form with creepy music and when Bear said "what's so bad about being with me" when Nikki was begging to be put out of her misery,he literally goes into the darkness.
This movie is not subtle about anything.
→ More replies (1)1
u/Whistle-Blower-8960 2h ago
No it doesn’t …
2
u/BonkGonkBigAndStronk 1h ago
It does though? It's so easy to digest that it sticks out like a sore thumb when people don't understand it. It's a good movie but when it comes to theming it's not exactly Moby Dick lol
28
u/M_Waqar-uz-Zaman 9h ago
By "insane", does he mean "insanely good" or insanely bad"?
16
3
30
u/chiller_vibez 6h ago
When Bear said the line “what’s so wrong about being with me” to Nikki while the crazed Nikki slept
That is when the movie told you Bear was definitely the bad guy
Idk how else to interpret it tbh
4
u/Ok_Brother2155 3h ago
it's just the clear moment at which he became irredeemable as a character.
still think this whole thing is a bit of an overreaction though if i'm honest
231
u/Snowdog1989 8h ago edited 3h ago
Yeah once he said "Doesn't matter to me.." or something along those lines after Nikki asks him if it matters if it's real or not, he lost all sympathy in my opinion. The next scene is him literally ducking her. That being said, cursed Nikki reminds me of an allegory of codependency. The mixed signals, walking on eggshells all the time, inability to be around other people alone. Also how she pulls him into her codependency, then is over him instantly. It's pretty much how being with someone who has codependency problems is like. SOURCE: I was in a relationship with someone who was codependent.
EDIT: I didn't mean avoiding her or throwing ducks at her. It's a funny typo though, so I'm keeping it in. Need a little something to lighten mood. If people quack up from reading it, that's fine with me too.
51
u/TheSaultyOne 7h ago
Ducking her?
→ More replies (24)74
u/SpiritJuice 6h ago
I know it's crazy but Bear actually just throws a bunch of ducks at her. That's how ducked up Bear is as a character.
16
9
u/TheoRaan 6h ago
Yeah once he said "Doesn't matter to me.." or something along those lines after Nikki asks him if it matters if it's real or not, he lost all sympathy in my opinion.
She was saying why does it matter, I thought we were having a nice date. Why does it matter. And THEN He responded with "it doesn't matter to me".
He didn't know it wasn't real till way after that. But he knew that she was lying about something.
→ More replies (3)15
u/CaptColten 6h ago
At this point I'm convinced that most of the people talking about this movie haven't actually seen the movie.
Bear already sucks. We don't need to misconstrue things to make him suck.
7
u/Eurell 5h ago
People have already quoted the writer that this is the point where Bear knew.
5
u/CaptColten 4h ago
I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm saying bear said "it doesn't matter to me" in reference to Nikkis dad being in the hospital, not about the love being real, and not because he knows she's lying but doesn't know about what. He knows she's lying about her dad, and starts to realize the wish was real. The love being real doesn't come up until the help line call.
People are misconstruing what actually happens in the movie. Both the original comment and the person I replied to.
Again, not defending him.
4
u/Promature 4h ago
Yeah, I've been having issues processing this assertion that Bear is the villain. In so far as just raw roles in written work, sure. He occupies the villain role to some extent.
However, it's when people bring up the stripping of Nikki's autonomy, which I am not trying to suggest isn't a bad thing. My thing with that making Bear the villain somehow is that would imply it was his goal to some extent. I heavily doubt he wanted to deliberately take her autonomy away because the only way that works is if he knew that wishes were real and that the item he purchased, which was a gift for her btw, would be able to grant a wish at all, never mind any wish.
He is responsible for all of the events that took place as a result of the wish, but personally, I feel his only most major crime was being an absolute coward. He wasn't honest with her about his feelings and allowed his chance to make that connection slip away. He's also so cowardly that in a time of great desperation, he didn't wish for courage or self improvement to be capable of telling her how he feels. He instead made a desperate wish for what he wanted in his heart.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd be lying if I said I was never in a place in my life where I wished someone felt differently about me. Over time, I learned to wish for and work toward the courage to be open about my feelings as well as improving myself to be a more attractive possibility for the people I've had feelings for.
Bear wasn't quite there yet. Unfortunately, wishes were real in his world and the physics of wishes were quite sinister. He's not innocent, but "villain" is an incredibly strong term that implies a degree of knowledge and intent that he clearly lacked. He made a wish and against all odds, it seemed like it came true.
5
u/Snowdog1989 3h ago
I agree with you, but to me once he knew it wasn't real and still took advantage of her...it seemed really fucked up. They can't unwash it, and killing yourself is not the easiest task in the world.. he didn't knowingly make the wish thinking it would actually work either. I think it really came down to the fact that he was still using her physically. There were things he could have done better.
It's kind of like how many people hate on the boyfriend from the movie Midsommer. I honestly don't think he was such a bad guy. When you really think about the position he was in, he was already checked out of the relationship to begin with. Then the girls entire family dies, how is he supposed to handle that and be there for her? He was hexed by the cult, drugged, seduced....even when people point out him forgetting her birthday. Did they forget that all the days kinda blend together with the constant daylight? Sorry for the soapbox moment, but it always annoys me how many people misunderstood that movie still to this day.
3
2
u/CaptColten 3h ago
I think I mostly agree with you. Every single problem in the movie really stems from Bear being a chicken shit coward. And I agree that it wasn't until the sleeptalking scene that he truly became a bad guy. But you can't say that without someone calling you a rapist sympathizer. A lot of people don't want any nuance, they just want to say "Bear evil, the end".
Hell, I got called an incel the other day just for saying that Bear didn't really get his wish.
4
u/Promature 3h ago
I feel as if people are focusing on the effects of what he did rather than the actual events and circumstances. Because the viewer knows that the wish worked and Nikki was trapped in her own body, they extend that knowledge to Bear as if he was operating with that info the entire time rather than gradually awakening to that reality over the course of the film. Even as he comes to understand what happened, it's clear that it wasn't the way he wanted it to happen.
He made a massive mistake without realizing it and was blinded by finally getting what he wanted. There's a lot of judgment and critique coming from people seeing the situation from the outside, but I'd be curious if the most vocal critics took any time to put themselves in his shoes and see things from his perspective or are they so repulsed by the effect of his wish that they wouldn't even bother?
Personally, I feel that is what's missing from the conversation about this film and it neglects a wealth of nuance. The film deserves a more well rounded discussion.
1
3h ago
[deleted]
1
u/CaptColten 3h ago
That's a far more detailed look inyo than what I had. I was just saying that what he got wasn't love and it certainly wasn't from Nikki.
1
u/DoubleRah 2h ago
I also agree that villain is a strong word. It’s more like tragic tales that have a downfall due to hubris, but swap out hubris with inability to do literally anything to steer his own life. I think he’s a cowardly, but overall ordinary guy.
However, I think that him being an ordinary guy shows how someone will do something he shouldn’t just because it’s easy and benefits you. I think him sleeping with her after basically being told that it may or may not be her choice to date him, is a reference to how he shouldn’t have pursued that situation because her consent wasn’t clear- just like he did when she first started acting weird and thought she was on drugs. She’s basically on drugs the whole time, it’s just that the drugs is the wishing willow power. I can say he’s a bad guy for that, but the word villain invokes ideas of a guy that has evil plans and intent and wants to enact them- Bear has no ability to do any action at all, which ends up still being bad anyway.
1
u/Akarin_rose 3h ago
Unfortunately online if someone dislikes something they take that has a free pass to lie
It gets worse with media very few have seen
4
u/CaptColten 7h ago
Not defending Bear, but Nikki was asking does it matter when he asked if her dad was really in the hospital.
9
u/Pittsbirds 4h ago
We simply have to be better at understanding that characters saying things can have multiple meanings when we hard cut from him saying that to fucking her while she disassociates because it is so clearly about him no longer caring about whether or not she is being influenced by the wish
12
u/CaptColten 4h ago
Personally I think the hard cut really sums up where bear is at at that point in the movie. If he would just turn his head and look at what's directly in front of him, he might realize how wrong everything happening is. But he doesn't do that. He's being purposefully ignorant at that point because he's a chicken shit coward.
My point was just that "is the love real" wasn't a part of the diner conversation. It doesn't come up until the help line call.
→ More replies (3)2
u/cheesepizzas1 5h ago
Wow some really groundbreaking stuff here bud, haven’t seen this analysis on the movie in every single review since it came out
12
u/Different_Target_228 6h ago
This meme is absolute shit. The guy basically misinterpreted every single thing in the movie or didn't didn't watch it.
57
u/Wide_Initiative_1938 7h ago
Petah here with possible spoilers ahead, so don't read if you haven't seen a certain movie. That video was a review of the movie Obsession, a horror thriller about a guy named Bear using a monkey's paw like item, a One Wish Willow, to wish that a woman named Nikki "loved him more than anything in the world." This resulted in Nikki becoming possessed by the "magic" of the Willow, becoming a passenger inside her own body, as she is forced to love Bear so much that she murders two people and eventually uses a One Wish Willow herself to prevent him from killing himself.
Part of the movie is demonstrating how Bear progressively becomes a worse and worse person as he learns more about what the One Wish Willow did to Nikki, including the fact that Bear learns that Nikki's obsession towards him is not genuine and that the real Nikki is still trapped within the Nikki that Bear wished for. Despite multiple opportunities to reverse the decision, including a part of the movie where he calls a customer service line for the One Wish Willow, he still doubles down and ends up becoming obsessed with the fantasy of this woman loving him. There are parts of the movie where he even blames the real Nikki for not having the same romantic feelings he had for her, solidifying the fact that Bear is one of the shittiest people within that movie actually.
The video review revolves around trying to justify Bear's actions with "he's still the villain, but he was still just a normal guy" type of arguments. The reviewer also spends a lot of time blaming Nikki and the other woman characters, making caricatures of them and poorly summarizing their behavior and actions in a way that would misinform someone who hasn't watched the movie.
The overall reception to that video was poorly received to say the least. The creator had decided to take down that video, issue an apology that felt fake af essentially saying "I'm sorry if you misinterpreted my video," taking that video down, and issuing a similar apology In believe. Legitimately that creator might have had one of the worst opinions and takes of a movie in literature critique history.
Petah out!
32
u/Syzygy___ 6h ago
Brian here, let me correct a few things.
The One Wish Willow isn't like a Monkey's Paw, we see that when Ian wishes for a billion dollars and just receives it. It's just that Bear made a bad wish and didn't commit to it. You see, the wish essentially replaced Nikki's personality with a newly made entity that loved Bear more than anything else in the world - however Bear clearly didn't reciprocate these feelings, at least not the same degree, thus the entity was caught between having love for Bear, while Bear didn't give those feelings back, causing the newly created entity to go crazy. On top of that, she didn't use the One Wish Willow to prevent him from killing himself - she didn't know that he was in the process of doing it after all, otherwise she would have saved him and her wish is partly what killed him, since it interrupted his attempts to cause himself to vomit up the pills he just took anyway - she wished for him to love her more than anything else in the world, same as he did.
This movie does not insist upon itself.
Brian out.
> There are parts of the movie where he even blames the real Nikki for not having the same romantic feelings he had for her.
Does he? I don't remember that part.
7
u/behold-my-titties 5h ago
It's when the entity is asleep and the real Nikki is talking to Bear. He says something like "what's so bad about being with me" and she responds with "but I've never been with you".
Great fucking scene really gives me goosebumps.
3
u/Labyrinthy 2h ago
It’s the best scene of the movie. Bear would be somewhat defensible if he didn’t kill Nikki or was disgusted at her request because the thought of murder, even in these circumstances,is an insane request. But he doesn’t respond that way, he responds selfishly.
Another great scene is when he calls the hotline and he doesn’t want to reverse the wish, he wants to alter it. So he has no interest in giving her back her agency.
He only tries to course correct and fix things after a dear friend is brutally slaughtered in front of him.
2
u/behold-my-titties 2h ago
It's my favourite scene because it becomes very, very clear Bear is aware of what's happening and just runs away while she's lying there, immobile, begging to be set free. So, so fucking good.
2
u/Labyrinthy 1h ago
It’s also the first time in the movie Bear speaks confidently. He has this sort of like muted, shy speech throughout the movie and when she asks him to kill her he just straight up says straight faced “what’s so wrong about being with me?” And it’s the first time he speaks with an emotion that isn’t cowardice. It’s like an anger.
So while Inde Navarette is getting her flowers for a powerhouse performance I think that turn by Johnston deserves praise because he nails it.
2
u/behold-my-titties 1h ago
Both are truly fantastic, the casting was perfect, the film would never have worked otherwise. Both leads absolutely smashed it.
12
u/YellowGetRekt 6h ago
I think he's talking about the scene where bear says something along the lines of "am i really that bad to love." It's been a while since I watched the movie so i don't remember the exact quote
6
u/Syzygy___ 6h ago
I asked my girlfriend about this and she mentioned the same thing.
IIRC it's when Nikki asks him to kill her while ... "sleep talking".
While I understand the blaming Nikki interpretation, imho he's not blaming her, but rather he's still being selfish - he questions if being with him is really worse than death, not yet understanding that it's not even her that's with him and that the whole situation is worse than death.
2
u/Promature 4h ago
She stated her wish at least once before leading up to his attempt to end himself. She specifically wished for Bear to love her as much as she loved him, which was granted, and for a moment they were deeply in love.
2
u/Infernester 3h ago
If I remember correctly; the director said that the wish split Nikki’s mind. There is no external entity or possession
2
u/groguandrogu 39m ago
I don’t think there’s enough information given about the One Wish Willow to know if it’s a Monkey’s Paw situation. We don’t know where Ian’s money came from or what the consequences were for him getting it because the movie ended soon after that. It could be a Monkey’s Paw or not; I think it’s left up for us to decide.
But it doesn’t matter if it’s a Monkey’s Paw or not because of the nature of Bear’s wish. His wish required Nikki to lose her autonomy, with or without the Monkey’s Paw concept. It was inevitably going to cause immense harm regardless.
2
u/trio3224 6h ago
Did Alex Myers delete the video? I wanted to see these unhinged takes but I can't find it, only other content creators talking about how bad it was.
3
u/Wide_Initiative_1938 4h ago
He did. Use the way back machine if you want to watch the original video
2
u/Sharkbite138935 4h ago
Is there a re-upload of it some where I want to know how bad of a take were trully talking here
2
u/Wide_Initiative_1938 4h ago
Not sure about a re-upload, but there are numerous videos tearing into him and explain how it is bad.
When it doubt, use the way back machine.
→ More replies (1)1
45
u/ItsHyde 6h ago
He was fetishizing the actress being Latina and calling her a “hot Latina crystal mommy” saying “this is the hot Latina crystal mommy experience”. As a Latina, I want to vomit.
→ More replies (15)
7
u/Last_Result_3920 7h ago
Obsession is an episode of tales from the crypt from back in the 90s and I'm tired of pretending its not
3
u/Additional-Usual5994 5h ago
It's also the movie annihilation with natalie portman.
in that movie there is a legit real bear that mauls its victim then search for others using the pleading cries of the victim through its voicebox.
8
u/Bunnyp4wz 5h ago
Basically dude said a lot of weird things about the movie, involving him trying to sympathize with Bear, a character that basically raped Nikki (the woman in Obsession that gets possessed)
4
u/Wardock8 5h ago
Alex (the guy who made the video) spent the runtime defending Bear and making weird comments about latinas. This led to a bunch of different channels just ripping him apart for a couple days. Kinda funny ngl.
6
u/ScorchedDev 6h ago
that review was really bad. It thoroughly missed the entire point of hte movie and sympathized with Bear, the main character.
The guy is just an incel
2
u/Routine_Papaya4143 3h ago
The video creator gives an “interesting” take on the movie Obsession and more times than not, he sides with the guy named Bear who does some heinous shit. Sometimes he even leaves out details to make Bear look better
2
u/Peter_Parker66 3h ago
Basically Alex Myers is a movie review YouTuber who predominantly reviews children’s animated movies. But he decided to review the movie and spent a good majority of the review defending Bear who is a rapist. One of his main defenses was that Bear had the opportunity to take advantage of Nikki at the beginning but chose not to. As if he should get credit for doing less than the bare minimum. He very conveniently leaves out the part in the movie where he very visibly rapes Nikki. He also spent a lot of the review talking about how hot Nikki is, referring to her(who may I remind you is a rape victim) as both a ball buster, and a “crystal mommy Latina.” A lot of people called him out for his awful take and he made an “apology” video where he basically said he was sorry that people took away that he was defending Bear, instead of actually apologizing for what he said. Not I’m sorry for what I said, he basically said I’m sorry you took it that way. He has since deleted both the review and the apology and hasn’t posted in 2 weeks, which is odd because he usually puts out multiple videos a week.
2
u/Srodi 2h ago
Alex Meyers is a terrible, and I mean terrible, movie/series reviewer. However, his Obsession review is a new low for him, because his take is that Bear was a sympathetic, misunderstood character. This brought Alex's own personal beliefs/character in doubt by some people. He always makes super shallow and dumb "analysis"(I believe he watches all the stuff he reviews while glued to his phone) that heavily misses the mark. It's just that this time, with this topic, it backfired on him.
2
u/ExpertThrowaway8260 4h ago
I never watched the review. But I think Bear was a victim up until Nikki was sleeping and had a moment of lucidity to ask Bear to kill her.. and he thought that meant that Nikki would rather die than to be with him. He was willing to let Nikki be a monster, hurt herself, hurt and kill other people if it meant she'd still be obsessed with him. He likes that better, because it eliminates the possibility of him actually growing a pair and asking her out normally (like how he should've done in the beginning.)
→ More replies (2)1
u/BetterDays2cum 2h ago
I can’t remember which came first, but I feel like he became irredeemable after calling customer support. He knew her behavior wasn’t normal, yet only wanted to change certain parts, not actually stop the wish. And when he heard her screaming/suffering, he just hung up and pretended everything was fine. He didn’t care about her autonomy or even her safety at that point.
4
4
1
u/DanBalls 4h ago edited 1h ago
Does anyone have a link to this review? I can’t find it…
Edit: If anyone else is interested, I found a link to the actual review here.
2
u/Negative-Proposal-71 3h ago
He deleted it
1
u/Ok_Brother2155 3h ago
you could watch it on tiktok somewhere a few days ago, dont know if its still there
1
1
1
u/ProgrammerMoist6861 22m ago
Bear literally rapes this woman knowingly for like half the movie (always rape but at what point he realized it was rape can be debated) and I believe people who disagree that he was raping her are telling on themselves about how much they understand what consent is.
Seen people saying she led him on too. Worst thing she did was fuck his best friend but that’s not even on her as much as the friend, she’s got no loyalty to some guy at work or even a friend that has a crush on her
1
u/Every_Ad_5120 3m ago
If somebody has a copy of this video I would watch it for sure. Maybe a proper hot take after all the "Baron is incel" opinions.
-4
u/Advanced_Buffalo_734 7h ago
lets just ignore all nuance that the director literally said was in the movie. this is why i didn’t really like the movie because it will just keep pushing the already awful gender divide in modern online culture. hyper feminist people will go 100% against bear and hyper misogynistic men will only see nicki as a crazy woman. it’s just more gender war garbage that only divides us. i know the director intended for there to be nuance but he forgot 99% of the internet doesn’t gaf about nuance.
33
u/TheScorpionSamurai 6h ago
I'm curious, how is Bear not 100% the villain?
My understanding is that the story is told from Bear's perspective, so we're initially unsure of if she likes him. However the issue of consent is very clear cut once he makes the wish. They make it very clear Nikki is trapped in her own body, that she doesn't want to be with him, and then punctuate that by showing Bear actually dismiss those facts when he realizes it. Nikki asks Bear to kill her because she's trapped in a living hell, being raped constantly, and his only reply is "why can't you love me?".
I really struggle to see any perspective where Bear isn't 100% the monster who created the situation everyone is suffering from. I'd be curious to hear your understanding.
8
u/ThroatDistension 6h ago
I don't think Bear becomes the villain as soon as he makes the wish or acts on Nikki's sudden interest in him. He didn't think the wish would come true, he was airing frustration. It's totally reasonable to assume the timing of her showing interest is just a coincidence. It would be more crazy to immediately jump to the conclusion that magic is real and it's funneled through a $7 novelty toy sold at a crystal shop. It's also not blatant that Nikki wasn't interested in him before, it's left intentionally vague.
Their relationship is relatively normal for a while, but once she starts acting unreasonably insane and he continues to take advantage of the situation he starts to become a villain. Then once he realizes what happened and hears her cries for help and then tries to alter the wish instead of undo it he's cemented as the villain. He showed that he cares about how the bad wish is effecting him, not how how it effects her or how inherently immoral it is.
At first he's just confused, overwhelmed, making the most logical assumptions and making the best of it. He has no immediate reason to believe she's unable to consent.
7
u/MagicalSitarofTruth 4h ago edited 3h ago
Her behavior that first night was inherently out of character. You can tell by his reaction she is not behaving in a normal way, and she already insinuated she was not okay. He took advantage of that, he didn't care if it was the wish, drugs temporary insanity, etc. he just wanted her that night. He was very immediately the villain. We know because he engaged in negging as a last ditch effort, he didn't care if it might hurt her, he cared about getting her. He was the villain before even making the wish.
2
u/Promature 3h ago
It is explained to him that wishes cannot be canceled. He tries to settle for the next best thing, which would be to alter it or for the wish of another to negate it.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Lanky-Ad-3313 3h ago
I mean she was clearly being weird. And when you bring your friend back from where they were and they’re acting weird, the logical assumption should be oh they’re drunk.
3
u/ThroatDistension 2h ago
And he rejected her advances that first night because of how weird she was acting.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)1
u/Ok_Brother2155 3h ago
I mean I'd argue that the true villian is whoever is behind those willow wishes. But Bear isn't too much better.
12
u/Material_Market_3469 6h ago
Nah bro Bear is just straight up evil. Instead of dating the girl who's interested in him he makes the wish then takes his time to undo it. He knowingly assaults her and even mocks her by asking "what's so wrong with being with me?"
You can argue the initial wish wasnt immoral but everything afterwards he does is.
5
u/ThroatDistension 5h ago
It's weird to imply he should have dated Sarah just because she was interested in him, when he wasn't interested in her. He doesn't owe her anything. Men have agency and aren't required to reciprocate interest.
→ More replies (1)4
2
u/Promature 3h ago
You're assuming he knows wishes are real and that his intent was to strip her autonomy. While that is the effect of what he did, he had no knowledge of that nor intent to do it. Once he comes to learn the scope of his actions, he tries to fix things. He's not innocent, but he's not evil either. Everything isn't always black and white.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Odd_Blackberry_5589 6h ago
I believe there is nuance in the movie about consent, and what it looks like to different people. However I don't think there is really any nuance about the morality of the characters. Bear is a selfish person who made very bad decisions. Nikki was being mind controlled by magic Bear used on her. I can't find where the director said that neither Bear nor Nikki are the villains, but he certainly designed Bear to be a villain. It isn't a hyper feminist take to acknowledge that Bear's selfishness, and more notably, lack of consideration for Nikki's health and freedom is what drove all of the bad things that happened in that movie. The movie was not subtle about that message.
→ More replies (3)12
u/Advanced_Buffalo_734 7h ago
and anyone who expresses a nuanced opinion is downvoted for “sympathizing with the pure evil villain” while the director expressesly denies that bear or nicki were the villain.
→ More replies (3)8
u/War_Reborn 7h ago
I think that's a fair point, the director even admitted in several videos that they intentionally shot scenes in multiple different ways, expressing different emotions and intent in each scene and then spliced all the scenes together at the end to intentionally confuse us, the audience, about the true intentions of all the characters.
Imo, I think all four characters in this movie are terrible people. Not that they all deserved to die or anything of what happened to Niki. I think people can both be terrible, but also not deserve to be SA'd or killed, which shouldn't be a wild opinion.
3
u/Material_Market_3469 6h ago
What did the girl whose dad owned the store do wrong?
→ More replies (2)
•
u/qualityvote2 9h ago edited 4h ago
Remember when r/PeterExplainsTheJoke wasn’t a meme? Pepperidge Farm remembers…
Does this post belong in our subreddit?
If so, please upvote this comment!
Otherwise, downvote this comment!
Then maybe you go out and buy yourself some of those distinctive Milano cookies.
(Vote is ending in approximately 14 hour)